Keep Going
by Mai Kusakabe
Summary: There have been many events and people that have helped shape Trafalgar Law as he is now, and yet, without one person in particular, he would be nothing like the man he is today.
1. Day 1: Dislikes

Hello :)

Here's my contribution for the Trafalgar Law Week on tumblr. As I am a little short on time right now between all my ongoing stories and classes, I've decided to write a series of drabbles and very short one-shots, and I have one for each day.

Be warned that this is full of spoilers from Dressrosa, and mostly from Law's past.

Here's day one, Heart Pirates.

* * *

**Dislikes**

The Heart Pirates are an odd crew if compared to the standards descriptions usually identified with pirates. Their captain, too, is strange in comparison to what is expected of a pirate captain.

Trafalgar Law has many quirks.

He despises bread —they don't even have any on board, and it has been replaced by rice in the crew's diet— he dislikes umeboshi, he tends to forget about eating if he is distracted by something only to afterwards empty the pantry in a single meal —after being left without food for a period of five days, the Heart Pirates have set up various hiding places for food throughout the submarine— and he wouldn't know what a healthy sleeping schedule is if it smacked him on the face.

However, Law's most notorious oddity is his absolute hatred of silence.

He always needs there to be some type of sound. When he is with someone else it's fine, because the noises people make by simply being there are enough, breathing and the rustling of fabric work to soothe him; he has a vast collection of music and tone dials, and whenever he is alone there is always one playing; instead of taking up the room that in the original design of the submarine was meant to be a comfortable cabin for the captain, Law has occupied the one next to the engines' room, a place than in origin was meant to be a storeroom because the noises made by the engines can be heard perfectly through the wall.

No one has ever asked about the reason behind this particular quirk, but whenever a member of the crew finds either some good music or a tone dial with a nice sound recorded in it they bring it and leave it on the kitchen counter.

Law never mentions it, but the objects disappear from the counter and his collection keeps growing.


	2. Day 2: The Learning Process

Day 2: Ope Ope no Mi :)

* * *

**The Learning Process**

Law had known, ever since the moment he had been able to react enough to leave Minion Island, that he would not be able to study medicine the traditional way. He had always wanted to be a doctor, now more than ever. His father had been the one who had started to teach him medicine, and Cora-san had counted on Law's knowledge and skill to be able to heal himself using the powers of the Ope Ope no Mi.

Now, medicine was one of the few links he had left to all the important people in his life.

However, Law was no idiot. He may no longer be a ticking bomb approaching his unavoidable and imminent demise, and he may no longer bear the marks from the Amber Lead Syndrome that had prevented him from being able to approach other people without having them trying to kill him, but that didn't mean Law could just do it now. Doflamingo would be looking for him, Law had understood he wanted the power of the Ope Ope no Mi too much to give it up, and that meant Law had to be very careful.

He had spent enough time with the Donquixote Family to know they had eyes and ears everywhere, especially around the North Blue, which meant Law couldn't just settle down to study anywhere. Even if he used a fake name to enter a medical school or apprentice with a doctor, it would be just a matter of time before they found it. Law had no doubt places where he could study medicine would be some of the locations they kept a closer eye on, because they had known that Law had wanted to be a doctor. Doflamingo had even provided him with books and materials to study for the two years and a half he had spent with the family.

If they found him, Cora-san's sacrifice would have been for nothing, and Law would never allow that to happen.

That meant he had to improvise if he wanted to become a doctor.

Stealing books, or anything else he needed, was ridiculously easy. "Shambles" was the name he had given to the technique that allowed him to switch things from one place to another, he simply needed to have something to exchange them with. Pebbles worked wonderfully for that purpose.

The practical part of his studies was a little trickier.

He had learned early on that, as soon as he had a cutting object, he could cut things and people up without destroying or killing them in the process, and put them back together once he was done, but Law couldn't simply go around cutting random people up to examine their bodies, as that would be like sending a blaring signal that said "Law is here". It had taken a while, but Law had found a temporary solution for this problem. For now, he searched the seedier areas of whatever city he was staying in at the moment, and worked on unconscious –be it from alcohol, drugs or simple sleep—people. Even on corpses he found around. At some point he would have to spread his search to find more varied subjects to study, but for now these worked just fine.

His parents would be horrified by his actions, Lamy would most likely be afraid by what he was doing and ask him to stop, and Cora-san… Law wasn't sure if he would be disappointed or understand that Law was doing the best he could given the circumstances. But Law was learning, and he would become a great doctor. He even had the best power to accomplish it.


	3. Day 3: Silence

Day 3: Moment :)

* * *

**Silence**

Law takes a step forward. He can't understand _how_ he can do it. His legs tremble, they tremble so much he almost falls.

"_I'm still his brother by blood. Sure, he'll get mad… but he won't kill me."_

_Liar. You knew._

A gunshot. There is no gun, it hasn't happened now, but the sound rebounds in Law's head, loud and clear. It is a sound that won't disappear, a sound he will never forget.

He takes another step forward. His legs are heavy, he is dragging them, but his feet don't make any sound.

"_I'm the soundless man who ate the nagi nagi fruit."_

_What a silly power._

Good, silence is good. Silence is Cora-san's power. If there is silence, then Cora-san…

"_Its miraculous properties could apparently heal any kind of illness out there."_

If he could just get there…

"_Alright, let's meet at the next island."_

_Liar. You knew you wouldn't come._

"_I'm sorry I lied… I didn't want you to hate me…"_

_Hate you? How? You…_

His body is cold, and his face is even colder; the tears mixing with the falling snow practically freezing his skin.

But he is outside that treasure chest, and he can go.

"_Just let him go! He's free!"_

_Free? Free to do what?_

If only he could go there, he could…

_You said it with that silly face, but…_

"_I love you."_

Then, sound. He can hear his feet crunching the snow beneath them louder than the explosions and the battles raging throughout the island, louder than the sobs that rack his body, making him tremble as not even the cold does.

But Law keeps walking, because Cora-san asked him to.

He is free now.

_Free to do what?_


	4. Day 4: The First One

A light one to compensate for the last update.

Day 4: Aesthetic :)

* * *

**The First One**

"Are you sure about this?" the man sitting on the swivel chair asked dubiously, looking at the very elaborate drawing in his hand.

"Absolutely," Law, who was sitting on the hard-backed chair before him, answered.

The man directed another dubious look at the drawing before looking at Law again.

"How old are you? I don't think you have told me yet."

"Eighteen," Law said with a shrug. "It's perfectly legal, not that you would care either way." Law had come here because he knew this man, aside from being pretty good at what he did, couldn't care less about who his clients were, even if said clients were clearly minors or wanted criminals. He hadn't expected such reluctance. "I have the money, if that's the problem," he added, starting to grow annoyed.

"That's not it." The man's eyes moved to one of Law's pierced ears and then back to the paper. "You've said this is your first one, are you sure you don't want to start with something smaller?"

Law was starting to grow really annoyed now. So that was it? The man was worried he would back off halfway through the process, scared, and maybe give him some trouble? Law flexed the fingers of his right hand, weighing the pros and cons of just cutting the guy up and scaring him into doing what he wanted him to. Some of his thoughts must have showed on his face, because the man swallowed noisily and stood up.

"Very well, it's your body, you know it best. Go to the backroom and remove your shirt," he instructed, and followed Law inside with the paper depicting a very detailed heart-shaped tattoo clutched in one hand.


	5. Day 5: Trust

Day 5: Relationships :)

* * *

**Trust**

Strawhat Luffy was a silly idiot. Law had known as much already, of course, he had seen him at Sabaody two years ago, but he had to admit he had underestimated just how much of an idiot Strawhat truly was.

Law wasn't annoyed, at least not as much as he let out –Law had a soft spot for silly idiots, after all—but he was too stressed to spare too much patience for Strawhat's particular brand of craziness.

This was it, today was the day when his efforts of the past thirteen years would come to fruition. He would either win or lose everything.

To say Law was tense was a very serious understatement.

But maybe, just maybe, when Strawhat had made it abundantly clear that he had no intention of abandoning Law, that he wasn't going anywhere and that he wanted to defeat Doflamingo, Law relaxed a little.

Strawhat Luffy was a silly idiot, yes, but he was the sort of silly idiot that Law would trust with his life, even with his objectives. Because, the moment Strawhat freed Law against Law's own words, he knew that, even if he failed, if his best efforts weren't enough to kill Doflamingo, Strawhat would be there, and he would put his best efforts into defeating Doflamingo as well.


	6. Day 6: The Path to Power

Day 6: Pirate :)

This one isn't very good, but I wanted to post a story every day, so here it is.

* * *

**The Path to Power**

Law was going to finish what Cora-san had started, that was something he had decided the same day that Cora-san had died. Deciding how he would go about accomplishing it was something that required some more thought. He needed to become stronger if he wanted to stand a chance of killing Doflamingo: so strong, in fact, that most people would recognize his name and either fear or admire it.

The reactions to his name would depend mostly on the path he chose to reach that level of power.

Law hated the World Government, and he would never work for them, be it either as a marine or as any other type of soldier. He could become a bounty hunter, he guessed, but in a way that would mean helping the government as well, even if it was in a roundabout way, and thus he discarded that option too.

There was that rising force that was becoming a very serious thorn in the government's side, the Revolutionary Army, that might be able to help him reach a good level of strength. They had some very powerful fighters, that was true, but Law wasn't in a position where he could devote to freeing countries when he had his own mission already, and he didn't like too much the idea of following orders.

He smirked.

If he didn't want to help the government or to follow orders, that left him with basically one more option.

He could almost imagine the scolding that Cora-san would give him for this decision, when Cora-san had put so much effort into keeping children, even Law himself, away from such a path.

Law finished the whiskey he wasn't nearly old enough to be drinking and stood from his seat at the back of the dingy bar. It would still take a while before he followed that path, Law would need to be much stronger than he was now before he revealed himself to the world, because he didn't know how much time he would have before encountering Doflamingo once he did, but his mind was already made.

As he left the bar, Law wondered whether Cora-san would be chagrined or flattered at having a pirate crew –_Law's_ pirate crew—named in his honor.


	7. Day 7: Smile

Well, here's the last one :) But, before that, I wanted to tell the guest reviewer from last chapter that that is a really cute idea, and if I knew how to draw I would do it xD Thanks, I loved it ;)

Now, day 7: Corazon.

* * *

**Smile**

Cora-san is there, sprawled on the ground in the position he had fallen in when the chest where Law had been hidden, the chest Cora-san had been propped against, had been removed. He is half buried in the snow already, his head barely visible.

Law crouches down next to him, ignoring the now distant noises of the battle.

"They've left, Cora-san," he says, even though he knows his words cannot be heard anymore. "I'm out."

Law reaches out with a shaking hand to remove the snow covering Cora-san's face. He is still warm, the freezing cold hasn't chilled his skin yet. His eyes are closed.

Cora-san is smiling.

Law's lips tremble. A fresh wave of tears, that by now had subdued to a constant stream falling down his cheeks, takes over his eyes. He barely holds back from sobbing out loud, because Cora-san had never liked to see Law cry. Cora-san always sulked when he saw Law cry, and got mad at whoever had made him cry. Law knows that Cora-san made an effort to ensure that the last thing Law saw him doing was smile.

So Law smiles, too, even though his lips tremble, because he wants to believe that Cora-san can still see him.

"You just wait, Cora-san. I'm gonna make you proud, you'll see," he promises. He still doesn't know how he is going to do it, but Cora-san gave him a chance to live and Law isn't going to let it go to waste.

He wipes off a snowflake that has fallen on Cora-san's forehead.

Law hears running feet coming this way, and he looks over in that direction. He turns to Cora-san one last time.

"I have to go," he tells him, and then does something he has never done before. He leans down and kisses Cora-san's forehead.


End file.
